Cub Fans Strike Back

The Chicago Cubs are leading in the National League East, but there is no joy in Broward for Cubbie fans who watch cable TV.

Despite the Cubs` hot season, cable companies in Broward County have turned a cold shoulder to the idea of carrying WGN, which broadcasts the games.

Instead, the companies are opting for WWOR, which carries New York teams, and WTBS, which carries the Atlanta Braves.

``I`m so ticked off,`` said Rod Heffern, a Cubs fan and general manager for The Baseball Card Store in Plantation. ``I`m throwing out my cable box and buying a satellite dish. It`s not fair. We`ve been fans all our lives and now we can`t even see them when they`re about to go all the way.``

Cubs fans are particularly upset because their team, which hasn`t won a pennant since 1945, is now in first place.

``We`d love to be able to see their afternoon games on TV,`` said John Pluta, owner of Baseball Cards and Sportstuff in Fort Lauderdale. ``It sure beats the soap operas.``

All across Broward, specialty stores are doing a brisk business in Cubs memorabilia and paraphernalia.

``It`s ironic you called,`` said George Garcher of the No. 1 Sports Fan shop in the Coral Square mall. ``My first three sales (on Thursday) were for Cub T- shirts.

``I`m a Cleveland Indians fan, so I`ve had my share of disappointment -- 30 year`s worth,`` Garcher said. ``I can relate to the long drought.``

Garcher said he doesn`t understand cable TV companies carrying WWOR but not WGN.

There are probably as many Cubs fans in the tri-county area as Mets and Yankees fans, he speculated.

``I`ve got to believe that,`` he said. ``We see Cubs fans in the store every day.``

WGN, with its Cubs games, disappeared as regular cable-TV fare on Dec. 27 when Storer Cable became the last of the cable companies in Broward to drop the station. Cable company representatives said it was expensive and impractical to carry WGN. (Of the major cable companies in Palm Beach County, Leadership Cablevision is the only one to carry WGN. Leadership Cablevision serves Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and a small part of Boca Raton.)

Scott Norwood, general manager of Storer`s local company, Hollywood Cablevision, said it costs companies significantly more money if they carry a third superstation. So most companies stick with WWOR and WTBS.

``It was a hard decision that had to be made,`` he said.

Only a handful of small, private cable TV services, such as those serving a single hotel, apartment building or condominium complex, offer WGN in the tri- county area, said Jeff Treeman, vice president of marketing for United Video Inc., which markets WGN.

The Cubs and WGN are owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Co., which also owns the News and Sun-Sentinel Co., publisher of the Fort Lauderdale News/Sun- Sentinel.

Storer`s decision to drop WGN ignited a storm of protest in Hollywood and Pembroke Pines.

In Hollywood, a survey is being conducted by a committee of residents to gauge the interest among cable subscribers in WGN.

For some Cubs fans, using dish antennas to snag TV transmissions from satellites is the only alternative.

Radio personality Neil Rogers, reached at home, where he was watching the Cubs on satellite TV, did not have nice things to say about the cable companies that do not offer WGN.

``It`s a rip-off,`` he said. ``Storer took it away to put on that Ted Turner crap -- the worst station on cable TV. It`s just another example of how the cable companies are screwing the public. That`s why I got this (satellite) dish.``

Federal deregulation of the cable TV industry prevents local governments from interfering in rates and programming, said Sherry Michau, the county`s cable TV coordinator.

Sometimes, she wishes she could.

``I`m from Chicago and I wish I had a way to watch the games,`` she said.

Meanwhile, store owners said customers are growing more and more incensed about the situation.

``Some customers get really P.O.`d about not getting the games on TV,`` said Bill Acevedo, owner of Acevedo`s Collectibles Comics and Cards in Davie. ``It`s terrible. They rant and rave. They get really worked up.